It's the space race of the 21st century. The competition between the US and China to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence tools is at a critical point. Some crucial signs point toward America faltering in that race.

The "new tech cold war" between the US and China is entering a "more dangerous" phase, said Marina Yue Zhang at The Diplomat. The Senate recently held a hearing focused on "concerns that the United States' lead over China was eroding fast", and President Donald Trump has been signing AI chip deals with "key regional allies" in the Middle East. 

Those developments signal American concern that China is "increasingly setting the pace and shaping the rules" in the new AI-dominated world. Beijing, after all, accounts for "over 70% of global AI patent filings".

What did the commentators say?
China is running a "different kind of strategic race", said The Economist. While American firms focus on developing the most advanced AI models, Chinese developers "emphasise practically applying AI" for consumers and in factories, said former tech executive Zhang Yaqin. Americans like OpenAI's Sam Altman talk about AI surpassing human cognitive ability, but the Chinese government is focused more on solving "concrete problems like economic growth and industrial upgrading", said RAND Corporation's Karson Elmgren. 

While American companies develop proprietary AI models and charge for access, Chinese developers have "expanded their influence" by creating and distributing open-source programs like DeepSeek, said Eric Schmidt and Selina Xu at The New York Times. The result is that America is "no longer in the era when China is far behind us". 

The US cannot count on tariffs and export controls to maintain its lead. The danger now is that the "China-dominated future is already arriving", said Schmidt and Xu. That's why the government has "scant interest in regulating AI" and why politicians are mostly "silent on AI's job threat", said Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen at Axios. 

What next?
Beijing on Monday "blasted" American policymakers for imposing controls on AI chip exports to China, said The Associated Press. Those curbs "seriously violate the consensus" the two countries arrived at in calling a 90-day pause in the trade skirmish, the commerce ministry said in a statement. Those "underlying differences" between Washington and Beijing could still lead to "further turbulence," said AP.

More than 20 years after receiving his OBE, David Beckham looks set finally to receive a knighthood in the King's birthday honours. The former footballer, who turned 50 last month, will be knighted after having "struck up a firm friendship with King Charles", said The Sun.

Last year, Beckham revealed he had "swapped beekeeping tips" with the King before becoming an ambassador for the monarch's charity, said The Telegraph. He has "repeatedly rubbed shoulders with the King and Queen" and even "wore a new rose named in the King's honour when he met them at the Chelsea Flower Show last month".

A long time coming
"Year after year", Beckham had been notably absent from the honours list, said the Daily Mirror. Despite being the face of British sport for over a decade, as far back as 2011 Beckham's nomination for a knighthood was rejected outright after his tax affairs were deemed too controversial.

In 2017, it seemed as if "his chances were dashed" for good "when explosive emails were leaked in which he reportedly lashed out at the Honours Committee for not including him on the list", said the Mirror. 
After some much-needed diplomacy, and a huge amount of charity work, many thought a knighthood "would finally come in 2022, after he spent 13 hours queuing with the public to pay his respects at Queen Elizabeth's coffin", said The Sun. But Beckham again missed out. 

'Seemingly Teflon'
Despite his "fame, wealth and good looks", Beckham "has not always been his own greatest advocate", said The Spectator. In fact, "there has always been a faint ridiculousness to him, as if Frank Spencer had inhabited the body of Brad Pitt".

But this knighthood is testament to the fact that Beckham's brand is "seemingly Teflon", said The Telegraph's Marianka Swain. Despite "some major reputational blows, from the 1998 World Cup sending off and Rebecca Loos's 2004 claims of an extramarital affair to controversy over the Qatar-hosted 2022 World Cup", the former footballer "is entering his golden years more professionally successful and adored than ever".

If it is to be "Arise, Sir Goldenballs", said The Athletic's Daniel Taylorthen, "it just might be the birthday present he wanted above all".

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No one has 'betrayed' white working class
Emma Duncan in The Times
The success of Reform UK, writes Emma Duncan, "springs, in part, from the sense white Britons are losing out". But an "alternative explanation" is that white working class culture "lacks ambition" and "no longer values education", while "young black and Asian people" believe "the only way up the ladder" is through working hard at school. This is "good news" because "it suggests our society remains porous to those determined to achieve".

Don't be fooled by the euphemisms around assisted dying
Tom Tugendhat in The Spectator
"It's funny the ways we lie to ourselves", writes MP Tom Tugendhat. In Parliament's assisted dying debates, we "cloak" reality "in the language of compassion" but "behind the veil" are "ugly truths". Some MPs are "offended" by the terms "suicide and killing", yet "if we hide from the reality of the words", we "also hide from the reality of the law". Every "euphemism" is a "small abdication"; "we need brutal honesty, not sanitised language".

The stunning decline of the preference for having boys
The Economist's editorial board
"Without fanfare", says The Economist, the "noxious practice" of "aborting girls simply for being girls has become dramatically less common". The "global decline" of "gendercide" is "a blessing": "it implies an ebbing" of the "belief that men matter more". But should women ever "make up a large majority", men could "exploit their stronger position in the relationship market", making dating "harder" for heterosexual women. Don't assume that "what comes next" will be "trouble-free".